just got home from a nice quick sess in the sun, had a relentless and ciggy before i started to ride trials and gave me that boost of energy and had pulled everything that i wanted to do and then had my water which im still drinking now to hydrate me more as ive got kick boxing tonight, i didnt know water causes you to cramp up i usually have like 9 pints a day I rode for about 6 hours on Saturday on power bars (They were what was left in my bag), Coke and water with a decent bowl of weetabix for breakfast. If you don't like water, Sports drinks are better for hydration than fizzy drinks - If you look at the sugar content sports drinks tend to be about 4% (Which will work to hydrate as well as supply electrolytes), while fizzy drinks are mostly around 12% (And all they have is sugar, so a source of energy, but not ideal). Drinking water without anything else will leave you more prone to cramping as the water will wash electrolytes from your body (Purely through dilution). The combination of bananas and water is a very good one for keeping hydrated while also keeping electrolytes supplied. The ripeness of a banana incidentally it will affect its nutritional content. Really ripe sweet bananas are mostly simple short chain sugars, while green bananas are mostly complex carbs, so better all day energy, but they take longer to digest. ^^^^ i find that so interesting and usual knowledge, shame i dont like bananas